1. Technical Filed
The present invention relates generally to Metal Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF), and more particularly, the ability to manipulate the MEF emission by turning “on and off” the emission by passage of direct current through metallic interconnected particles of low electrical resistance.
2. Related Art
For many years the effects of fluorophores near-to plasmon resonant particles has been reported, with a perspective of both developing a fundamental understanding of the Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF)1-3 phenomenon and secondly, applying the enhanced photophysical properties of fluorophores to biological applications.4 In all of these reports, surface plasmons are induced in the near-field by close proximity fluorophore dipoles, the surface plasmons in turn radiating the coupled quanta, resulting in fluorescence amplification, as shown in FIG. 4—Top. The coupled fluorescence is for the most part very similar to the free-space fluorescence, observed in the absence of the metal, with the exceptions that the radiative lifetime is significantly shorter, which is thought to be underpinned by the plasmon decay1-3 and the angular-dependent emission of the coupled emission.5 
Given the intense research currently being undertaken on metal-fluorophore interactions and their applications in biology and clinical diagnostics, it would be advantageous to find other applicable uses of MEF such as being able to turn the MEF on or off (on demand) and useful for technologies such as a lab-on-a-chip and photon detectors.